Texas Tech University's Outreach & Engagement Office has announced that a research team that includes Anastasia Stellato, an Assistant Professor within Texas Tech's Department of Animal & Food Sciences, has been selected to receive a 2023 President's Emerging Engaged Scholarship Award.

The honor recognizes university faculty for a relatively new project or initiative that demonstrates high potential for the advancement of engaged scholarship. The project or initiative should show outstanding promise for having a significant impact on communities and the university. 

The project, titled “Supporting Animals and Veterans Through Enrichment,” involves brief interactions between student veterans and shelter dogs to explore if student veterans' report an improvement in mood states post-interaction and if shelter dogs display reduced behavioral indicators of stress during the interaction compared to in shelter assessments. Results of the exploratory project will be used to inform future intervention research aimed towards developing a standardized program to concurrently support veteran and shelter dog well-being within the Lubbock community.

An expert in companion animal behavior and welfare, Stellato joined the Texas Tech faculty in 2021. The Canadian native's doctorate in epidemiology is from the University of Guelph's Ontario Veterinary College. Her research program broadly focuses on promoting the health and welfare of companion animals through improving human-animal interactions within various applied environments.

In other action, the Outreach & Engagement Office recognized Muntazar Monsur, an Assistant Professor within the Department of Landscape Architecture, as a member of the inaugural cohort of the Texas Tech Faculty Fellows Mentoring Program in Engaged Scholarship Program.

Program officials note that thanks to grant funding received from Texas Tech's Office of the Provost, faculty in the 2023 cohort will participate in Michigan State University's Summer Intensive on Community-Engaged Scholarship this summer in Lansing, Michigan. All fellows will be matched with a team of Texas Tech engaged scholarship mentors and partner with communities to collaborate on projects addressing challenges in the South Plains region. 

An expert in measuring environment-behavior relationships in children's environments, Monsur joined the Texas Tech faculty in 2019. The Bangladesh native received his doctoral degree in design from North Carolina State. He was recently selected as a member of the university's Institute for Inclusive Excellence Program.

In addition to Monsur, other 2023 fellows from across the university include: 

• Toby Brooks, Associate Professor, Kinesiology & Sports Management, College of Arts & Sciences
• Paulina Velez-Gomez, Assistant Professor and Assistant Director of the Center for Adolescent Resiliency, College of Human Sciences
• Jennifer Hamrick, Assistant Professor, Special Education, College of Education, and Director, Burkhart Center for Autism Education & Research
• Gizem Levent, Assistant Professor, Epidemiology, School of Veterinary Medicine
• Mihwa Park, Assistant Professor of STEM Education, Dept. of Curriculum & Instruction, College of Education
• Jason Tham, Assistant Professor, Technical Communication & Rhetoric, College of Arts & Sciences
• Shan Xu, Assistant Professor, Public Relations & Strategic Communication Management, College of Media & Communication

CONTACT: Clint Krehbiel, Dean, Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources, Texas Tech University at (806) 742-2808 or Clint.Krehbiel@ttu.edu

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